[haiku-commits] Re: r43210 - haiku/trunk/src/preferences/keymap

  • From: "Ingo Weinhold" <ingo_weinhold@xxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-commits@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:22:16 +0100

John Scipione wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Ingo Weinhold <ingo_weinhold@xxxxxx> wrote:
> > Adrien Destugues wrote:
> True copying and moving keys is destructive.
> 
> I say we support swap only for now unless there is a good reason to support
> moving and copying. If you rely on the feature, speak now.

What would moving be good for anyway? It would clear the source key? That seems 
a very rare use case and could be addressed by a "Clear key" (context) menu 
item.

> > A right click could open a context menu from which a modifier (maybe even
> > other characters) can be chosen.
> 
> That would be pretty easy to do for modifier keys, but for regular keys I
> don't think a right click menu is a very good idea, too many keys to choose
> from.

I wouldn't put all possible Unicode chars in the menu, but common ones and a 
bit less common ones might be nice. I'm thinking of sub menus like "Motifiers", 
"Lower case latin", "Upper case latin", "Lower/Upper case latin with 
diacritical marks" (*cough* maybe a shorter text), and maybe an entry "Other 
characters..." which would open an extended dialog (or even just CharacterMap). 
Please also don't forget that menu items can be laid out in a grid, so the sub 
menus don't have to be long lists of single character items, but can be 
organized more compactly.

> > Alternatively a left click could open a popup (list/tree or a more complex
> > dialog) from which a modifier or character can be chosen. At least I don't
> > quite see the point of why a click on the key button would produce the
> > character. I mean one could as well press the actual key on the keyboard,
> > right?. If others see a point, it could simple be two modes between which
> > one can switch via menu item, check box, or whatever.
> 
> Same problem here, too many keys to choose from for a popup box. I'm just
> trying to imagine it.
> 
> |= Arabic
> |= Chinese
> |= Greek
>  += alpha
>  += beta
>  += gamma
>  ...
> |= Latin
> |= Japanese
> ...
> 
> oh my!

Yep, a simple list/tree with an item per character is not going to fly, but the 
characters could be laid out in a grid and the sections could be expandable 
items or they could be selected in a separate list as in CharacterMap or via a 
combo box.

> > As another alternative a floating window could be opened via a menu item or
> > some button from which key functions could be dragged and dropped.
> 
> Well, that is more manageable than trying to stuff all the different
> choices in a PopUp. If we want to support this feature, that is not a
> terrible idea.
> 
> Right click on a key and a pop-up menu appears with the option "Choose
> key". Selecting it pops up the Choose key window.
> 
> The Choose key window could resemble Character Map. A list of different key
> categories on the left (Arabic, Chinese, Greek, etc.), and a list keys to
> choose from on the right. It wouldn't even have to be drag and drop. Pick
> the key you want from the right list and push "Ok" and it replaces the key.

That's basically what I meant with popup/dialog (just without the menu item 
indirection).

The disadvantage of a popup/dialog is that it closes after a character has been 
selected, which certainly gets annoying, when you want to change more than only 
a few keys. That's were a floating would come handy. Instead of (or additionaly 
to) D&D selecting a key in the layout and double-clicking a modifier/character 
in the floating window could be used for assigning key functions. Or, maybe 
better, single click in the floating window + single click on the key.

CU, Ingo

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